imperial research grant

for more than a decade, this program has provided funding for research projects carried out by faculty members and their 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 .

areas of interest

environment

• remediation of soil impacted by recalcitrant petroleum hydrocarbons, salts (mostly nacl) or both, to as close to pristine conditions as possible
• improved delineation of soil impacted by petroleum hydrocarbons, salts or both
• boreal forest wetland reclamation
• novel environmental monitoring technologies (e.g., remote sensing, edna)
• fundamental understanding of the interactions of minerals and residual hydrocarbon in the aqueous phase and what causes enhanced separation (e.g., use of additives such as polymers)
• enhancements in sox, nox reduction technologies

in-situ bitumen recovery

• bitumen-hydrocarbon-steam phase behaviors (vlle) with temperature and pressure variation (up to > 200°c)
• dispersion and diffusion in porous media of methane in bitumen 
• formation of hydrates upon depressurization of c2-c3-c1-bitumen-hc mixtures
• miscible and partially miscible finger modeling (using macroscopic parameters)
• mass transfer in solvent finger/bitumen matrix networks (diffusion and dispersion)
• modeling of heat and mass transfer boundary layers in steam-thermal-solvent processes
• modeling of asphaltene or asphaltene-rich heavy phase transport in heavy oil recovery process 

in-situ facilities

• improvements in multiphase pumps, novel water softening, water hardness analyzers, waste heat utilization, external heat source engines, abrasion resistant materials
• improved methods to detect, remove or prevent scaling and fouling on piping and vessels while minimizing downtime
• improved methods of produced fluid measurement - quantification of multiphase produced fluid streams in presence of high temperature, vapour, solvents and viscous bitumen
• improved methods to differentiate between native bitumen and reproduced injected solvent which have overlapping hydrocarbon components
• economic optimization of in-situ solvent recovery processes and facilities under global constraints

analytical techniques for petroleum products

• in-use online analysis of petroleum products
• failure modes of in-service petroleum products
• failure modes of industrial components that are lubricated with petroleum products
• forensic analysis of lubricants and related industrial equipment
• analytical techniques for new and used lubricants
• oxygenate and speciation measurement in hydrocarbons
• bio-content determination in petroleum hydrocarbons
• metal measurement in process waters including sour water

refinery products, processes and facilities

• novel approaches for the removal of sulphur, phosphorous and nitrogen from hydrocarbon streams
• improved understanding of fouling and corrosion of process equipment both hydrocarbon and inorganic, and means to mitigate same
• novel approaches for quality enhancements for fuel products, oxygenate containing fuel products, and asphalts
• improvements in yields, run lengths, and molecular composition of product streams in refinery processing equipment
• improved production of basestocks from crudes
• breakthrough technology for energy efficiency improvement in refinery processing equipment, namely fired heaters and heat exchanger
• enhanced process control system - modeling of refinery systems (improved molecular characterization, reaction kinetics, hydrodynamic modeling)
• novel techniques for water conservation within a modern refinery
• novel techniques to predict cold flow properties of fuels from feed qualities and operating conditions in fixed bed reactors
• novel quench system designs for fixed bed reactors providing uniform fluid flow and quick installation and inspection

machine learning applied to simulation of chemical processes

• predictive analytics: equipment failure prediction, such as compressors, pumps, etc.
• hybrid modeling of chemical processes: combining first principle models with data driven models for a more comprehensive simulation
• use of machine learning algorithms for root cause analyses purposes.
• machine learning research in petroleum processes
• tower flooding predictions with data driven algorithms
• artificial neural network modeling and optimization of chemical processes, including fcc, hydrotreating, reforming, distillation, etc.
• data anomalies and deviation detection with machine learning for monitoring purposes

chemicals

• improvements related to polyethylene manufacturing
• improvements related to polyethylene products particularly polyethylene for injection and rotational molding applications
• improvements related to ethane/propane gas cracking to produce ethylene
• improvements related to manufacturing of vinyl intermediates, aromatics and naphtha based solvents
• improvements related to plastics recycling – technology improvements to enable improved flexible plastic packaging recycle chains
• improvements related to advanced recycling technologies
• investigate the effect of different bio sources in biofuels (gas and diesel) on polyethylene physical properties
• investigate and improve the organoleptic properties of polyethylene
• investigate methods to improve the barrier properties of rotational and injection molded parts
• investigate methods to improve the paintability of rotational and injection molded parts
• explore applications of polyethylene combined with bio-based materials
• investigate methods to evaluate and improve the environmental stress crack resistance performance of polyethylene
• safe transfer of synthetic polymer particles and dust properties
• investigation into and new methods to characterize the long term performance of polyethylene

geoscience

• diagenetic history, cementation, clay formation, burial history and petrographic studies of the mcmurray fm to determine the variation in ore quality
• emplacement variability and degradation of northern alberta bitumen using novel approaches
• resolve the stratigraphy and sedimentology of post cretaceous sediments in the athabasca region
• applications of remote sensing to mine development
• investigation of mud sedimentation in shallow water clastic depositional environments
• modeling of oil migration pathways through the palaeozoic sediments of the athabasca basin
• application of geophysical methods in predicting oil sands reservoir properties
• application of geophysical methods, other than seismic, to characterize the caprock formation in oil sands thermal projects
• hybrid modelling of reservoir processes
• optimization of reservoir operation